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Monday, July 18, 2011

July 13, 2011: Bean burgers

We like to think that we're pretty responsive to our readers - responding to their comment queries, checking out places they recommend and generally being all 'round good bloggers. Which is why I'm embarrassed to admit that Sophie-Lee emailed us this recipe a full nine months before we finally got around to making it. At least we got there in the end.

This is a relatively simple burger recipe, loaded up with beans and nuts for protein and bound together with some flour. One of its key advantages is the option of grinding up double or triple batches of the dry ingredients and keeping them on hand for nights when you can only be bothered cooking for 10 minutes. The burger patties themselves are kind of similar in texture to those just-add-water falafel mixtures and have a nutty, garlicky flavour (depending on how much garlic you load into them!). They're healthy and filling and, as you can see above, an excellent vessel for chutney.

Bean Burgers
(via reader Sophie-Lee, who based it on a recipe in Alison Holst's 'Meals Without Meat')

Mix the chickpeas, beans, peanuts and sesame seeds in a bowl and then grind in batches until it's all turned into something the texture of breadcrumbs.

Combine with the parsley, salt, oats and chickpea flour.

This will make about 2 cups of the burger mix, which is enough for 6-8 patties. You can put some aside and use it later or just make it all up at once. The quantities of the garlic, tamari and water above are for the full mixture - proportion them down if you only make up half the mix.

Stir together the dry mix, the water, the tamari and the garlic powder and leave to soak for 15 minutes.

Shape the dough into burger patties and fry until each side has browned up nicely.

You have no idea how well timed this post is for me!! I've recently accepted the challenge of trying to eat more herbivore than carnivore, and I've cooked a bit in the past with chickpeas, but have no idea what to do with lentils! And to make it harder, I have to please a typical, Aussie, meat & beer husband too! I tried out a variation of these with lentils instead of the haricot beans, and I actually had chickpea flour! AMAZING! And the husband even agreed that it was "meaty" and yum! Thank you! :)